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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine participation in online social platforms consisting of information exchange, social network interactions, and political deliberation. Despite the proven benefits of online participation, the majority of internet users read social media data but do not directly contribute, a phenomenon called lurking. Design/methodology/approach A survey was administered electronically to 507 participants and consisted of ten sections in a questionnaire to gather data on the relationship between online participation and the following variables: anonymity, social value orientation, motivations, and participation in offline activities, as well as the internet’s political influence and personality traits. Findings Findings show that users with high levels of participation also identify themselves, report higher levels of extroversion, openness, and activity outside the internet, the motivations being an intermediary variable in the relationship between the variables value. Originality/value The study shows that participation in online social platforms is not only related to personality traits, but they are impacted by the nature of the motivations that drive them to participate in the particular social platform, as well as by the interest toward the specific topic, or the type or nature of the social group with whom they are communicating.

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This article examines the institutional impact of environmental management systems (EMSs), focusing on ISO 14001. It develops a pluralistic framework for thinking about the dynamic of corporate self-regulation that we term the polyphonic model. It argues that the adoption of ISO 14001 can move the firm into a new equilibrium trajectory, which enmeshes together environmental and economic goals and reflects greater sensitivity to ecological concerns. There is a positive reciprocal cycle between the pro-environmental structural changes induced by ISO 14001 and the employees' attitudes toward the firm and the environment. In order to examine ISO 14001 institutional impact, we conducted a series of interviews with managers and administered questionnaires to employees in 24 Israeli firms with and without certification. The findings indicate that the perceived environmental commitment of certified firms was higher than that of noncertified firms and was higher among employees that perceived the EMS as more highly integrated in the firm. Perceptions of the standard's integration were also found to be positively correlated with personal environmental commitment. The results also indicate that the increase in the firm's environmental commitment was positively associated with employees' organizational citizenship behavior within certified firms. Further indications of the pro-environmental dynamic induced by ISO 14001 were found in the in-depth interviews.Overt he last years, the environmental regulation system has undergone radical changes. Various private normative schemes play an increasingly important role in this new regulatory sphere. One of the main questions raised by this process is whether, and to what extent, private regulatory arrangements can replace public regulation. The question of the efficacy of private regulatory schemes reflects a broader dilemma concerning the circumstances under which firms will take environmental actions that go beyond what is prescribed by law. This article explores this question, focusing on the ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS), which is the most common voluntary environmental standard in the world (ISO 2008:10), serving also as the EMS of the EU eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS). 1 In exploring the puzzle of the efficacy of EMSs, we draw on a new model of the firm that we term the polyphonic model. According to this model, which is inspired by the writings of Luhmann and Nelson, firms and other organizations are depicted as dynamic, self-organized decision-processing systems, which can accommodate multiple logics and cultural themes. We argue that this model provides a coherent framework for thinking about the way in which different logics intertwine in the context of the modern corporation.Drawing on this theoretical construction, the article seeks to advance the empirical understanding of the dynamic of corporate selfregulation. Generally, we argue that the adoption of ISO 14001 can move the firm into a new equilibrium trajectory, which enmeshes together env...

This paper examines how different legal instruments affect people's moral intuitions and willingness to engage in social enforcement in the field of environmental law. These instruments vary in terms of their governance technique, the process through which they were enacted, and their allocation of enforcement responsibilities. Their effect on citizens' moral evaluation and emotional reaction to corporate polluting behaviour are examined, based on an experimental survey of a representative sample of 1400 individuals in Israel.Our findings demonstrate that their design influences people's level of moral and emotional resentment when faced by environmentally problematic behaviour, as well as their motivation to engage in private enforcement. The design of the regulatory instrument could thus generate biases in social reactions to polluting behaviour, irrespective of its actual ecological adverse effect. We analyse the moral and psychological mechanisms which underlie these effects and explore their various policy implications.